


wake up

by pekoeboo



Category: The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
Genre: Brief Language, Emetophobia, Glitch Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:07:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24047158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pekoeboo/pseuds/pekoeboo
Summary: A cryptic clue pushes Jimmy to question everything about his own reality, and in an attempt to find the truth, he uncovers far more than he bargained for. Alternate Universe - some original characters involved.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	wake up

**Author's Note:**

> A bit of a preface: This short story is based around an alternate universe I've been developing called the Nocturne AU, which you can read about [here.](https://pekoeboo.tumblr.com/post/616595696045457408) The original character mentioned in this story (Melvin Darke) belongs to my friend [laughingmist.](https://laughingmist.tumblr.com/)

Flickering light from a large LCD monitor cast a lonesome, pale glow across the earthy underground laboratory. Deep blue eyes were fixated on the screen, feverishly analyzing and calculating with each passing second.

It was 2:35 AM. Far too late to be staying up studying - and on a school night, no less!

However, Jimmy couldn't let that stop him. Not tonight. He had to get to the bottom of this, and if it meant pulling an all-nighter in order to do so, then by all means he would. The subsequent aftermath of disappointing his mother in the morning was put on the back burner for now - he'd deal with that later. 

Right now, he was on a mission. 

Something strange was happening. At this moment, Jimmy couldn't exactly pinpoint what it could even be, but he had to follow his intuition on this one. An inexplicable feeling of uncertainty and suspicion had been quietly surfacing, settling deep in his gut and bringing about an ever-growing anxiety along with it. His stomach had been tied up in knots for weeks. He couldn't sleep, could hardly even eat.

Melvin Darke, his new piano teacher, had spoken several words just days before that truly haunted him. Jimmy had been getting the impression for some time that the kind gentleman was calmly trying to warn him of something; dropping cryptic offers of advice that came across as more of a secret message than anything. It was nothing short of ominous, to say the least.

Jimmy paused, taking a moment to think back on that one sentence that stuck with him. He and Melvin had gone on a tangent about dreaming during one of Jimmy's lessons, as it was common for the two of them to get into some rather complex discussions about the world and how it functions. But the way Melvin had wrapped up the conversation was... particularly striking. As if he chose his words deliberately and precisely in order to convey a deeper meaning behind it. 

_"Sooner or later, you must wake up,"_ Melvin had said. After the words were spoken, Jimmy was quick to respond by affirming that, yes, of _course_ everyone eventually wakes from a dream. What an obvious statement to make!

Yet Melvin's gentle eyes held something deeper. A quiet sadness; a silent, desperate plea. Something seemed to be hidden between the lines, and Jimmy was determined to uncover it. His mind had gone over every facet of the memory - each microexpression, the inflection of Melvin's voice as he spoke each syllable.... 

There was something there, but _what?_

With a slight shake of the head, Jimmy focused his attention back on his search. He had been delving deep into the concept of dreams and how the subconscious mind functions within that state, digging up any information he could possibly find on the matter. 

What exactly was Melvin trying to hint at, here? Was there something wrong with him? Did he have trouble sleeping, or suffered from nightmares? Or was he being poetic in a wildly convoluted way, indirectly describing something else entirely that he wanted Jimmy to find out on his own? 

The young boy let out a quiet groan, rubbing his dry, tired eyes. His temple was throbbing with a violent headache, and the bright screen surely wasn't making it any better. His gaze landed on the mess of paper that haphazardly littered his desk. Scribbled notes, unanswered questions, and crude sketches of the human brain covered page upon page.

But there was that sentence, repeated over and over. Words he had underlined and circled as being of the utmost importance.

_You must wake up._

_Wake up._

Those were the words that Melvin had subtly emphasized. Jimmy knew that they had to mean something significant. So what was it? A code? Was Melvin talking about himself, or... was he talking to Jimmy?

The boy's brows furrowed in concern. That sickening feeling returned full force as he stared hard at the paper. It was as if the words themselves were screaming at him with a sense of urgency. 

Maybe Melvin wasn't trying to offer a clue, he slowly realized. Maybe... it was a _command_.

Jimmy's blood immediately ran cold. He could feel his pulse pounding in his ears as he quietly contemplated why the man would tell him something like that in the first place. 

'Wake up?' But how, and from _what_? Was it literal? Figurative?

He pressed a hand to his forehead. Something in the back of his mind told him that maybe none of this really mattered, that he was just overreacting and thinking too deeply into a concept that wasn't worth pursuing. 

A heavy sigh filled the silence. No, he _couldn't_ drop this. Of course it didn't make logical sense to look into it... but that feeling of unease continued to eat away at him no matter how much he tried to ignore it. He had never felt something quite like this before; such a strong, intrinsic notion in his spirit that overrode all rational thought and reasoning. Yet here it was, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Jimmy rubbed his eyes yet again, trying his best to get rid of any sleepiness in an attempt to stay awake. 

"VOX," he murmured, turning his gaze back to the computer screen. "What is the approximate probability of me being asleep at this very moment?"

Seemed like a silly question, but he wanted to hear a response. Something accurate, a definite number. 

_"Calculating probability at... zero percent."_

Jimmy sat back in his seat in relief. "Hmph. That's what I tho--"

_"Zero point... nine percent,"_ the computer corrected. To Jimmy's surprise, the percentage on the monitor slowly began to rise. _"One point tw-- One point eight percent. Two percent."_

The screen flickered. VOX's voice briefly seemed to malfunction as the number crawled into the three and four-percent range. After a sudden and subtle visual glitch, the number reset to zero, with VOX calmly announcing the final calculation as if nothing ever happened.

A deafening stillness came over the entire lab. Goosebumps prickled along Jimmy's arms as he stared at the screen in disbelief. 

_Something was wrong._

Swallowing hard, the boy leaned forward and swiftly began clacking away at the keyboard, his expression darkening. 

"Give me a full diagnostic assessment, VOX," he ordered. "Run a virus scan. Check for rootkits and critical system errors." 

As VOX carried out the given task, Jimmy turned his focus onto the command terminal so he could see the process as it unfolded. His eyes scanned over each string of text that appeared, looking for any unusual activity. Everything seemed fine so far, with no signs of hacking or malware. 

The diagnostic test came back clean. All operations were nominal, and the virus scan yielded no negative results, either. 

This didn't make sense. Jimmy pursed his lips and urgently scrolled through the recorded activity log. Why would his computer glitch like that, but then immediately tell him that there were no errors? 

He put aside his previous research for the time being. While he still wanted to figure out what Melvin's words truly meant, all of that had to take a temporary backseat to what was currently going on with VOX. He couldn't let himself look up any more information on dreams until he fixed the problem.

Unless... it was connected? The computer had given him an inaccurate numerical value when asked to calculate the probability of being in a dream state. Could that have been a coincidence; a mistake?

No, it couldn't have been. If the computer was running perfectly fine - if there truly were no errors or viruses at play here - then there was a possibility that the original numbers displayed were... accurate. Why would VOX give him a response, only to redact it moments later? It wasn't normal. Jimmy had never doubted his computer's ability to calculate advanced equations before. After all, it was a computer. That's exactly what it was _designed_ to do. 

But perhaps, just like Melvin, VOX was trying to tell him something. There had to be a clue hiding in the activity log - a piece of definitive evidence to make sense of this strange phenomenon. 

With a bit of searching, he found the exact moment where the computer was busy processing his query from earlier. Nothing appeared to be off with the calculations, but something shifted right around the time that the anomaly occurred. 

A thread of strange commands cropped up, almost completely embedded within the rest of the text. If Jimmy hadn't been paying close attention, it would've been easy to miss.  
  
_`> WARNING: System Override`_  
_`> USER: <xxx>`_  
_`> PASSWORD: <xxxxxxxx> `_  
_`> Administrator Access Granted`_  
_`>`_  
_`> taskkill -im ASC_SYS_calculation.exe`_  
_`>`_  
_`> type query_answer.txt `_  
_`> "4.6%"`_  
_`>`_  
_`> echo "0.0%" > query_answer.txt```_  
_`>`_  
_`> start "" ASC_SYS_calculation.exe`_

Jimmy felt his breath hitch in his throat. That fear churned his stomach and sent his pulse racing. 

Someone _was_ tampering with the program, and this particular someone also appeared to have full administrative access to the system itself - which would explain why their presence bypassed the virus scan. 

The very thought was sickening, yet Jimmy wanted to know more.

There had to be a way to force the computer to reveal that hidden administrator password and username. It was most likely encrypted using a specific key, but with the right kind of meddling with the system, there was a chance that he could crack it. Unfortunately, this process could potentially take a while. 

He glanced at the clock. 3:13 AM. Only a few hours left before he had to get ready for school. 

Eh, what was another several hours of research and code-cracking at this point, anyway? This was important, and it certainly couldn't wait.

So he did some digging. Looking into the framework of the computer itself, searching for the precise file location where this sensitive information would be stored. It took a massive chunk of time just to locate the encrypted administrative file, as it was buried deep within a separate hard drive location known as _ASC_SYS_. 

Strange. Jimmy never recalled linking another hard drive by that name to his computer. Sure, he had a few back-up drives to store gargantuan amounts of scientific information and research, but he had personally named and organized them to make sure he would remember what each one stored. 

_ASC_SYS_ was not one of them. He had no idea where this drive came from, nor how it ended up linked to his computer. 

That jarring feeling of uneasiness settled in the air like smog, slowly but surely raising Jimmy's anxiety and making it difficult to breathe. He didn't like this. Not one bit.

But despite that dreadful agitation, the boy still pressed on - applying his quickly-constructed cipher to the file in an attempt to extract the encryption key. Letting the algorithm run its course would surely take up a lot of time, as the cipher had to run through a massive set of possible codes in order to find the right one. 

He let out a quiet sigh. Gosh, he was so tired... but he couldn't allow himself to fall asleep just yet. The last thing he wanted was to miss out on discovering something huge, and he knew that he was on the cusp of getting to the bottom of this whole thing. 

Before he had a chance to get up and stretch his legs while his cipher worked in the background, a soft _ping_ caught his attention. There, on the desktop taskbar, was a notification for a new instant message. 

Jimmy squinted in confusion. It was so late... who the heck would be messaging him at this time of night, anyway?

Opening the chatroom, he found that a new conversation had been added to the list by a username he didn't recognize - someone known as "X." The bold text and flashing window was more than enough to entice Jimmy to click on the message, as this sudden occurrence definitely piqued his curiosity. However, the following conversation certainly wasn't what he expected.

_`**X** : leave those files alone, boy.` _  
_`**X** : you're safe where you are. don't interfere.` _

The hair on the back of Jimmy's neck stood on end. Was this the same person who had been tampering with VOX earlier? It had to be. There was no other way to explain how this anonymous person would know that Jimmy was attempting to get into those encrypted files. He was clearly being watched.

With trembling hands, the boy decided to reply.

_`**atomicgenius01** : Who are you? How did you find me?` _

A pause. There was no response for a few moments, but eventually Jimmy saw a small notification at the bottom of the chat box that let him know this mysterious X was typing.

_`**X:** disable your cipher. leave the files alone.` _  
_`**X:** stop messing with things you don't understand.` _  
_`**atomicgenius01** : You didn't answer me. ` _  
_`**X** : DISABLE YOUR CIPHER.` _  
_`**X** : NOW.` _

Steeling his shoulders, Jimmy pressed his lips together in defiance, quickly glancing over at the progress being made on the encryption key. Several letters had already been decoded, making short time of a process that Jimmy was certain would last for hours on end. 

_WI-LI--S._ It wasn't much, but it was enough to build off of from there. 

_`**atomicgenius01** : OK!!! Fine!!!! I'm terminating the cipher.` _

Reluctantly, he did as he was told. He got an almost immediate response from X the moment he killed the program.

_`**X** : good boy. ` _  
_`**atomicgenius01** : "Good boy?" Really? Don't talk to me like a pet. It's creepy.` _  
_`**atomicgenius01** : Anyway, I did what you asked. Now will you please tell me what's going on here?` _

No reply for some time. For a moment, Jimmy wondered if X had merely disappeared once he had complied with their demands, but the conversation eventually updated again roughly two minutes later.

_`**X** : you shouldn't be up. maybe you should get to bed.` _  
_`**X** : wouldn't want to sleep in too late and miss your bus again, would you?` _

A shiver passed up Jimmy's spine. He didn't appreciate just how much information this person appeared to possess.

_`**atomicgenius01** : How long have you been spying on me?` _  
_`**atomicgenius01** : Who the heck ARE you?! How do you have access to my computer?` _  
_`**X** : that is classified information, Neutron. nothing of importance to you.` _  
_`**X** : get some sleep. ` _  
_`**atomicgenius01** : No, I want answers.` _  
_`**atomicgenius01** : Tell me what's going on.` _  
_`**atomicgenius01** : Please.` _  
_`< **X** has left the chat>` _

Jimmy stared at the screen for several seconds, almost unsure of how to react. Taking in a quiet, shuddering breath, he clenched his fists and cast another quick glance over at the encrypted files. 

Based on the conversation he had with X, it was clear that whatever these files contained were top secret. Perhaps X was right - maybe it was better for Jimmy to leave this whole thing alone, pretend it never even happened, and get the sleep he so desperately needed. It sounded as if pursuing this trail could potentially lead to disastrous results, especially when dealing with a stalker and what seemed to be confidential information. 

Oh, curse his inquisitive nature! There was no way he could leave this alone. Not now, not when he had already started cracking the encryption key. At this point, it was all or nothing. Whatever this whole thing was about, he could handle it, right? Things always managed to miraculously work out in the end, anyway - no matter how dangerous or risky it was. 

He had stared danger in the face plenty of times before. Why stop now?

The boy squared his shoulders and released a deep exhale in an attempt to quell any anxiety. He still had a long night ahead of him, and he had to make sure that he kept his wits about him if he wanted to make any progress with solving this mystery.

Once he pushed aside those sickening feelings and ignored his growing headache to the best of his ability, Jimmy turned his attention back to the unfinished code. 

_WI-LI--S_. Even with only three more characters left to solve, the possible combinations were massive. He would have to run it through a new program to take the load of manually inputting letter after letter off his back. Hopefully X wouldn't get on his case about it again and tell him to shut down _that_ program, too.

Well, Jimmy wasn't going to let the possibility stop him. So what if X started sending threatening messages? Jimmy was determined to press on regardless.

So he started writing up a new executable. It was rather primitive, but it would still handle the computing process with relative ease. Plugging in the characters he already had into the program, he started it up, letting the program test out each variable before filing away the most plausible combinations in a separate list.

The little genius finally got out of his seat for the first time in hours, pacing back and forth for a few moments before finally realizing that he had some pain medicine in one of the nearby cupboards. It was probably smart to get that headache under control before it turned into a migraine. Heaven knew that staring at a large computer screen would only make it worse, after all. 

But his mind was still racing. Thinking about his conversation with X, those strange files, the fact that someone was tampering with his computer. Did Melvin have anything to do with all of this, too? Was he somehow aware of whatever was going on here? 

Jimmy’s gaze drifted back over to the computer. The unsolved passcode stared back at him from the large screen, mocking him, reminding him that he didn’t have all the answers. 

Not yet, anyway.

After taking some medicine and stocking up on a small supply of water bottles and Purple Flurp from the nearby mini fridge, Jimmy made his way back to the computer to check on the progress of the passcode. The program appeared to have finished creating a list, and all Jimmy had to do was manually input the most viable options into the encrypted file's password prompt. 

Several minutes passed. A quiet solemnity came over the lab as Jimmy patiently and tediously tested code after code. His fingers swiftly tapped against the keyboard; the sound of fervent clicking filling the empty room with a faint echo. 

Again and again, the password was rejected. Yet again and again, he kept trying. Another new code, another rejection, another attempt. Just a seemingly infinite cycle. Rinse, and repeat. Over and over and _over_ again.

His eyes began to glaze over. Truthfully, he wasn't even certain if he was reading the letters correctly, as his vision was growing fuzzy from lack of sleep.

But then, at some point within that hazy blur of time, it happened. _The file was unlocked._

Jimmy glanced over at his list to see which code happened to be the lucky winner. The last one he used was _'WILLIAMS.'_ Perhaps... it was a name?

No time to ponder that right now. What really mattered was figuring out the other passcode for gaining full administrative access to the hard drive itself. That information was held somewhere in the metadata of this file, and it wouldn't take long to locate at all. 

A familiar _ping_ played through the speakers, cutting through the silence and causing Jimmy to jump ever so slightly in his seat at the noise. Sure enough, it appeared to be another string of messages from X.

_`**X** : stop. ` _  
_`**X** : you don't know what you're doing. ` _  
_`**X** : leave the handling of top secret information to the adults. you're too young to be messing with this. go to sleep.` _

Jimmy ignored the messages. Instead, he directed his attention back to the file and started poking around to find what he was looking for. Not ten seconds later, he came across the once-hidden username and password from before. Right there in plain text.

_Bingo._

Without a single second to waste, he opened up the terminal again and combed through the hard drive, searching for _ASC_SYS_ in an attempt to override the system. 

_`**X** : James Isaac Neutron.` _  
_`**X** : close the terminal. ` _  
_`**X** : DO NOT TAMPER WITH THE SYSTEM.` _  
_`**X** : LEAVE IT ALONE.` _

That churning sensation in the pit of Jimmy's stomach quickly came back with a vengeance. His fingers began to shudder involuntarily.

He knew he shouldn't be doing this. He didn't need X telling him that. But the urgency behind this person's tone and how adamant they were about preventing him from gaining access to the program only fueled Jimmy's unbridled curiosity even further. 

What was X trying to hide? Why did this person deliberately rewrite VOX's response earlier on, and why didn't they want Jimmy gaining access to his own computer's inner workings? 

Shoving aside his own fear, the boy typed in a command to override the system. A username and password prompt immediately followed suit.

_`> WARNING: System Override` _  
_`> USER: <ASC>` _  
_`> PASSWORD: <NOCTURNE> ` _

Jimmy's pulse was beating fiercely under his fingertips. Each breath came to him in quick, forced gasps. With trembling hands, he pressed enter.

_`> Administrator Access Granted` _

A hint of a smile tugged at the corners of his lips. His eyes sparkled with triumph.

He had full control. _He_ was the administrator now.

Yet again, the chatroom instantly blew up with a list of new messages. Jimmy had obviously pushed his boundaries way too far this time.

_`**X** : DAMN IT NEUTRON` _  
_`**X** : WHAT DID I SAY` _  
_`**X** : YOU'RE IN WAY OVER YOUR HEAD LEAVE THIS ALONE` _  
_`**atomicgenius01** : Don't tell me what to do.` _  
_`< **atomicgenius01** has left the chat>` _  
_`**X** : hEY HEY` _  
_`**X** : GET BACK HERE` _  
_`**X** : DONT TOUCH THE SYSTEM!!!!` _  
_`**X** : STOP!!!` _

Jimmy didn't even bother reading whatever X had left behind once he closed the chat. It didn't matter at this point. Plus, it wasn't like X had managed to stop him, right? What could they even do about it now?

Nothing, that's what. Jimmy wasn't about to let this person scare him out of discovering the truth. There really was far more to all of this than he previously anticipated, and he wouldn't back down until he learned more.

What exactly was 'ASC,' anyway? It seemed to be a common list of letters, so clearly it held some importance. And why was the password to the system 'NOCTURNE?' What about the previous encryption key as well? Was Williams the name of someone who was tied to all of this somehow?

This required some sleuthing. He wanted answers, and he wanted them _now._

However, the moment he began to dive deeper and deeper into the depths of what this hard drive was hiding... something shifted. It was ever so subtle, possibly even a figment of his imagination, but for a split second, Jimmy was certain he saw something flicker out of the corner of his eye. The text on the computer screen glitched for a brief moment before correcting itself.

Oh, something was _definitely_ wrong.

Jimmy swallowed hard and shook his head, as if doing so would deflect the fear that continued to swirl around in the pit of his stomach. It was growing far more difficult to ignore the feeling of trepidation that threatened to eat him alive. 

He just needed to keep going. Strange documents caught his eye in the list of files that he was perusing, with most of them stored in a subfolder titled _Project Nocturne._

Nocturne. There was that word again. The boy's eyebrows furrowed in deep thought. 

Melvin's kind eyes flashed in his mind almost instantly. For the past several months, the man had been instructing Jimmy to focus on practicing various nocturnes by renowned classical composers. He seemed to be very set on this concept, not deviating from the composition style even despite Jimmy's eagerness to work on a fugue or an étude instead.

It was something that Jimmy didn't question for a while. But now... that only seemed to confirm Melvin's involvement in whatever was happening here. 

Melvin wanted Jimmy to "wake up."

X _insisted_ he go to sleep.

This contradiction seemed _extremely_ important. Things were slowly beginning to piece together, but Jimmy didn't have everything he needed yet to confirm his suspicions. What else could he uncover within these files? 

Text appeared inside of the command terminal that Jimmy was working in. It looked like X had managed to gain access again after realizing that Jimmy was purposely ignoring them in the chatroom. It was only a matter of time before this mysterious person returned, and at this point, Jimmy was practically expecting it.

_`> type README.txt` _  
_`> "you IDIOT. this is too dangerous, you need to stop what you're doing right now."` _  
_`> "I've tried to warn you but you're just a stubborn little brat."` _  
_`> "you were NEVER MEANT to gain administrative access. it's creating a paradox within the program, you could destroy EVERYTHING."` _

A... paradox? Jimmy pressed his lips firmly together and finally decided to open up the chatroom again.

_`< **atomicgenius01** has entered the chat>` _  
_`**atomicgenius01** : What are you talking about? What paradox?` _  
_`< **X** has entered the chat>` _  
_`**atomicgenius01** : Are you Williams? What do you know about Project Nocturne?` _  
_`**X** : you're not supposed to know these things. ` _  
_`**atomicgenius01** : I'm simply looking for answers. I want to know what's going on.` _  
_`**X** : listen. all you need to know is that your presence in the system can cause SERIOUS repercussions. ` _  
_`**X** : no more games, Neutron. close the terminal now before you regret it.` _

No, he couldn't. Not now. Not when he was so close...!

Jimmy pressed on. Going further and further down the rabbit hole; eventually stumbling across cryptic documents belonging to an 'Arcadia Science Center' and a man named Dr. Lucius Williams. The documents appeared to detail an experiment involving human consciousness, virtual reality, and a subject who was apparently in some form of stasis. 

Unfortunately, that was all Jimmy managed to uncover. Without warning, the terminal crashed yet again, but this time, it was far worse than before. Not only was the screen creating lines of dead pixels and shifting the text in distorted, jumbled ways... but it looked like the edge of the monitor itself was... quivering?

X reappeared, though it was difficult to read the messages, as the characters erratically shifted and changed.

_`**X** : s;"T iT's ha Ppen]ing%1D_HFs^` _  
_`d{\.>>?` _  
_`**?X** : y%U f!{KED;' IT UP\\` _

The keyboard in front of Jimmy briefly disappeared into thin air. His eyes frantically swept across the room, quickly realizing that everything around him appeared to be visually unstable in one way or another. Entire chunks of the wall vanished. VOX loudly announced a critical system error, but her voice was horrifically corrupted, eventually ending in a deafening, digital screech.

Jimmy doubled over, covering his ears. His heart leapt into his throat. By this point, he was feeling terribly nauseous. 

What. Was. Happening?!

A sharp pain rattled his body. Jimmy didn't recall closing his eyes, but when he opened them again, he was on the floor - several feet away from the computer. Almost as if he somehow teleported there. Every muscle in his body was shuddering. Glitching. Snapping in and out of place like a broken computer-generated 3D model. 

The sporadic movement was such an immense shock to Jimmy's system that he found it difficult to breathe. His trembling hands grasped at the floor in an attempt to stabilize himself as he weakly rose to his knees.

That strange defect occurred again. The room around him snapped to a different position as his body apparently shifted across the floor once more. Part of his arm was clipping through the ground. Everything in his line of vision was either severely corrupted, or disappearing entirely.

Beads of sweat raced down his forehead. Tears involuntarily spilled from his eyes. A rush of vertigo overwhelmed his senses within seconds, and his body lilted to the side from the sudden loss of equilibrium.

He promptly threw up from the dizzying sensation. 

And yet, amidst his panicked state, Jimmy's mind continued to race; piecing together everything he had figured out up until this point. Surprisingly, it was all starting to make sense. 

This... had to be a simulation. The only way to explain what was happening was if this was a direct result of this so-called Project Nocturne. Oh, but of course! That's why X didn't want him tampering with the program - Jimmy was _in_ the program! And if that were the case, then that meant _he_ was the subject placed in stasis. His involvement with the system created a paradox, as he was never supposed to interact with whatever was going on outside of the virtual reality he was in. 

A quiet whimper slipped from his lips. His stomach felt like it was twisting and contracting from the strange pressure caused by that awful glitching. God, he felt so _sick_.

Yet another malfunction. His body shifted a few feet to the right within the blink of an eye. By the time his mind was aware of what was happening, he realized he was already heaving again.

There had to be a way to stop this. Some kind of code, a hidden backdoor-- _anything_. Wasn't there a way out?

The answer quietly dawned on Jimmy as he gasped for air and squeezed his eyes shut tight; fighting back another flood of tears and vertigo. 

He already knew what he needed to do. He had known for _days_. Melvin had given him the key - he had prepared Jimmy for this very moment during their last lesson just a few days ago. 

_"Sooner or later, you must wake up."_

The only way out was to mentally break free of the simulation. He had no choice but to try. Try pushing past that indescribable pain, try forcing his subconscious to take control and reach beyond the boundaries of this virtual world. 

Everything around him slowly started to disappear the longer he maintained focus. The sounds, the sensations, the unstable nature of it all. Jimmy drew in deep, shuddering gasps and kept his eyes closed.

It was time to wake up. 

...And so he did.


End file.
